


Small Miracles

by Beleriandings



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Gwen is a badass, Ianto loves Jack a lot, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Not Miracle Day Compliant, crack with feelings, in which i make fun of Miracle Day, mild breaking of the fourth wall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24011092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: “No offense, but your dreams have poor plotting. Not very well thought out at all.”(Or, the one where Miracle Day is just a really weird dream Jack had)
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 18
Kudos: 87





	Small Miracles

**Author's Note:**

> Based on @suzie-costello's ask post on tumblr, [here](https://suzie-costello.tumblr.com/post/617228046815150080/about-md-sorry-if-u-treat-it-like-a-a-dodgy).

“ _Ahhhh!_ ”

Ianto was used to waking up in the middle of the night. As a specific case of this, he was used to being woken up at night by Jack, for reasons that spanned the entire scale from “hunting carnivorous alien slugs in a December sleet-storm” to… things involving Jack that were very much worth waking up for, in Ianto’s professional opinion.

He sat up, expertly dodging Jack’s flailing arm as he rolled over to check the time on his phone. “Jack, what is it?” he muttered, blinking in the light and putting his phone back down. “It’s two thirty-five AM!”

Jack sat up, peering down at him with wide, bleary eyes for a moment. “Ianto!” he sounded almost surprised to see him, and desperately relieved. “You’re here…”

“Apparently so” said Ianto, letting Jack pull him into his arms and kiss him, deep and relieved. He had an inkling, of course, what had happened; it was far, far from the first time Jack had had a nightmare since they’d been sleeping together, and of course Ianto had had his share of those too. Jack’s hand was resting against Ianto’s heart as though to reassure himself, which only backed up Ianto’s theory. “Bad dreams?” he ventured, as Jack’s breathing slowed down.

Jack made a face. “I dreamed… you’d died” he said quietly, making a face. He laughed, brittle and hollow, and Ianto realised there were tears on his face, in the dim light from the crack in the window. “Stupid, but I dreamed you died, last year.”

“Again?”

“Mmm.”

“Thames House, this time?” said Ianto. “Or the dalek?” Or one of the many other times he’d almost been killed.

“Thames House.”

“Well to be fair, it was a close thing.” He squeezed Jack’s hand, over his heart. “I’m right here, Jack.”

They were silent for a moment. But Ianto sensed there was something else bothering Jack. “…Want to talk about it?” he ventured.

Jack nodded, with a slight, teary laugh. “That…wasn’t even the main part of the dream. It was stupid. You were dead and I was…” he furrowed his brow. “I was in America, with Gwen. There were some other people there, but…they all started dying too, before I could even properly get to know them. There was…also something about an evil pharmaceutical company? Crime families? Oh, there was this child-murderer guy who came up a lot, don’t really know what he was doing apart from being an asshole… I don’t know, I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on because I was upset about you, but…” Jack trailed off. “Oh!” he said. “I remember now. Nobody in the world could die…except for me.”

Ianto grimaced, stroking Jack’s hair. “Well, that sounds like your subconscious having a laugh at your expense” he said.

“Yeah” said Jack. He frowned. “There were…some people that were using my blood…to do that. To make everyone in the world immortal.”

“Wait, that’s not possible, is it?” said Ianto. “That’s not…really how your immortality works, I thought?”

Jack smiled, gently. “Yeah. Biologically, I’m completely normal. No one like me, but me.”

“There we go then.” Ianto nodded. “Wait…you say your blood made everyone immortal? But somehow all these other characters kept dying?” said Ianto, raising an eyebrow. “No offense, but your dreams have poor plotting. Not very well thought out at all.”

Jack laughed. “That wasn’t all. There were a whole bunch of…” he gestured. “Other storylines, that just didn’t go anywhere.”

“Well, there you go then. Bad pacing, too.” Ianto shook his head, glad that Jack seemed to be calming down. But he noticed Jack frowning again, going still in his arms. He recognised that look, like Jack was staring through him. It usually meant Jack was lost in the past. “What?” he said, gently.

“…Nothing, just…one of my exes was there” Jack admitted. “Someone I haven’t thought about in a long time. …Aw, come on, I didn’t mean it like _that!_ ” said Jack, hastily, at Ianto’s expression. “No, just…” he went still. “…Doesn’t matter.”

“…It sounds like it does, actually” said Ianto quietly. He was never sure if he should push with things like this; usually, he’d just be happy to let Jack talk - or not talk - about his past, if he thought it would help him. But sometimes Jack could be so damn secretive, Ianto had learned, and it didn’t do him any good. Sometimes all it took was a little prompting, to take a little of Jack’s pain away. “Do you… want to talk about it?”

Jack looked up at him. “Not really” he said. “But…”

And then, in halting words, he told Ianto a story; a story of blood, and betrayal, and a man Jack had trusted subjecting Jack to terrible cruelty. By the time Jack was finished, it was all Ianto could do to stay still and not get up and pace around the bedroom with anger. Maybe punch a wall or two. But, exercising all the restraint available to him, he stayed still, contenting himself with holding Jack tighter. “What did you say his name was?” Ianto said. “Angelo?”

“Yeah” said Jack. “But it wasn’t his fault, it was mine, I - ”

“Like hell it was!” said Ianto, rapidly abandoning his resolve to just be a listening ear. “He stabbed you while you were in bed with him! That’s not your fault!”

“Yeah, but I was - ”

“ _Nope_ ” said Ianto, putting his hand over Jack’s mouth. “I’m not listening to you blame yourself for that. I’m sorry, Jack. I won’t accept it.”

Jack’s face softened, after a moment. “…Ianto Jones. How the hell did I manage to find someone like you.”

Ianto smiled, sitting up and pulling Jack alongside him, so they were curled up together. Jack’s head rested on his chest, over his heart, with Ianto’s arms around him. “Well, you’ve got infinite time. Bound to, eventually.”

But Jack shook his head. “That doesn’t follow.”

“Oh, well. You know what I mean.” Ianto threw his arm over his face. “Anyway, you woke me up at two thirty-five AM. …Twelve minutes past three, now. So you’ll have to excuse me if my grasp of the concept of the infinite isn’t up to scratch.”

Jack laughed, pushing himself up to kiss Ianto. “Sorry” he muttered, as they parted. He grinned, familiar, mischievous light dancing in his eyes again. “Wanna let me make it up to you?”

Ianto rolled his eyes, affectionate. “Oh, I suppose. If it’ll get something else to the forefront of your subconscious, thus letting me sleep afterwards.” But he belied his words by pulling Jack enthusiastically down on top of him, and for a while they didn’t talk at all.

Afterwards, they lay curled together, Ianto’s head pillowed on Jack’s outstretched arm. Ianto was nearly asleep, warm and relaxed and happy; heedless, for now, of the fact that they only had a few more hours before the alarm rang and they had to get up.

“Y’know” said Jack, pulling Ianto out of the edge of a dream. “There was one realistic part of it. The dream, I mean.”

“Oh?”

“Gwen was there. She kicked a lot of ass” said Jack. “…You know, at one point, I drove a Jeep while she destroyed a helicopter with a grenade launcher?”

Ianto whistled. “…God that sounds cool.”

“Yeah” said Jack. “It was, kinda.”

“Also, absolutely sounds like something Gwen would do” said Ianto.

“Right?!? She also punched someone in the face for calling her English.”

Ianto laughed. “Now that _does_ sound like Gwen. You should tell her about that part in the morning. She’ll like it.”

“Maybe I will.”

They both lapsed into silence, thinking.

“Everything else though? Load of bollocks, by the sound of it” said Ianto, succinctly.

“Oh, absolutely” said Jack, smiling in the dark. “…Yeah, I’m beginning to think so too.”

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
